


Wish Upon a Falling Star

by Afoolforatook, alphaparrot, Amber_Aglio, BrianneABanana, delta_altair, Nemomo, satariraine, StoryWeaverKirea, TesseractTown, TheCraftyNinjaCat, thedarkpoet, Victorious56



Category: RWBY
Genre: ...it's soft, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Getting Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:21:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25305178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Afoolforatook/pseuds/Afoolforatook, https://archiveofourown.org/users/alphaparrot/pseuds/alphaparrot, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amber_Aglio/pseuds/Amber_Aglio, https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrianneABanana/pseuds/BrianneABanana, https://archiveofourown.org/users/delta_altair/pseuds/delta_altair, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nemomo/pseuds/Nemomo, https://archiveofourown.org/users/satariraine/pseuds/satariraine, https://archiveofourown.org/users/StoryWeaverKirea/pseuds/StoryWeaverKirea, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TesseractTown/pseuds/TesseractTown, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCraftyNinjaCat/pseuds/TheCraftyNinjaCat, https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedarkpoet/pseuds/thedarkpoet, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Victorious56/pseuds/Victorious56
Summary: Qrow falls from the sky. Luckily, someone's there to catch him before he hits the ground.
Relationships: Qrow Branwen/Clover Ebi
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29
Collections: The Nonsense Game





	Wish Upon a Falling Star

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written collaboratively for the Nonsense Game (Fair Game Effect Discord server) for the prompt Vacuo Desert: Shooting Star Landing.
> 
> **Writers in Order:**
> 
> Afoolforatook  
> satariraine  
> Nemomo  
> thedarkpoet  
> Victorious56  
> Amber_Aglio  
> alphaparrot  
> BrianneABanana  
> StoryWeaverKirea  
> TesseractTown  
> delta_altair  
> TheCraftyNinjaCat

Clover sat alone a ways away from their camp. The kids had all already gone to sleep and Qrow was still out on a scouting mission. Clover wasn’t worried yet. The desert was vast and sparse but Qrow had insisted on doing these solo runs most nights. He always managed to find his way back within a couple of hours. 

But Clover still couldn’t get himself to fall asleep until he knew Qrow was back safe and sound. So there he was, leaning back on his elbows, head tilted back to watch the wisping clouds drag slowly across the starry sky. 

That’s when he noticed something different. A streak of light shooting through the air. A shooting star? No. It was too close. Far too close. And it was… red? A crackling, shifting, red light surrounding a small black center. The shimmer of the red looked eerily like an aura shattering. 

As it grew closer and closer, the red sparking around the small form, Clover saw it better. A bird. It was a small black bird… a crow? 

But it wasn’t flying. It was falling. Clover watched in shock as he followed the trajectory of the plummeting creature. It was going to land not too far from him. There was no way it would survive that fall, if it was even still alive at all. 

He leapt to his feet, taking off instantly. He could make it. He kept glancing up as he ran, making sure he was on the right path and keeping pace. 

He nearly tripped when, as he looked up to check on the small animal again, he saw something different. Something painfully familiar falling through the sky towards him. The red still crackled around the form. The much larger form. A form still topped with a mess of ruffled black. But now a red cape trailing behind it. 

Clover pushed on, frantic now, determined to catch his inexplicably falling partner.

* * *

_Faster, faster, c’mon!_ Pebbles, sand, stone - everything was kicked up in his haste as he ran. The desert air was biting, almost frigid in how it burned his lungs with every breath, but it didn’t matter. Any hurried stumble only made him rush faster as he watched Qrow fall, his eyes struggling in the dark to follow the familiar flash of red from Qrow’s cape. 

Something was wrong. Very, very wrong.

_“Qrow!”_

Clover slid across the sand and strained to hear anything beyond his own ragged breathing. A call for help, a warning, anything. Any sounds from Qrow that would mean he was aware, awake, struggling to right himself against the force of a freefall. This was the man who had more landing strategies than witty comebacks, for crying out loud. 

But nothing. Qrow was silent.

Clover had only seconds to get to Qrow. He was seconds away. 

If he was truly lucky, he’d make it in time to catch him. He would. He had to save him.

* * *

And so he ran, as fast as he could, begging his legs to go faster every damn precious second, cursing the gods, hoping, praying he would get there in time.

Then suddenly, like a miracle, Qrow was in his arms.

He had saved him.

The two men fell on the sand, and the weight of the world, that the operative had carried on his broad shoulders for so, so long, shattered to pieces.

_Qrow._

_Qrow was his world now._

But at that moment, he was unconscious. And... Sparkling ?

Yes. Qrow was sparkling. He was literally shining.

A _"Something tells me the crow in you would have loved that"_ thought crossed his mind, and Clover looked at the bright ray of light, literal and metaphorical, that was in front of him.

Qrow Branwen.

Brothers did he love than man.

"You're a gem..." The words softly got out of Clover's mouth when he began running a finger through the man's bangs, deeply breathing the desert air.

"Well you're not that bad either."

Clover's hand immediately froze, and his eyes widened.

Two shiny crimson stars were looking at him, piercing through his soul. Geez. The man could easily break his aura with a single wink.

"Hello, little shooting star."

"Shut up, I'm a fucking comet."

* * *

“Cold and distant? Predictable?” 

“Epic,” Qrow said mulishly. “Awe-inspiring.”

“You inspire awe in me,” Clover said, relishing the blush that bloomed across Qrow’s cheeks. He knew the other man would argue it was the cold; the heat had fled as soon as the sun vanished below the horizon. 

He got to his feet, and the dune shifted under him. The stars glittered overhead, reflecting into Qrow’s eyes.

* * *

“I remember seeing a shooting star when I was a kid, now and again.” Clover’s voice was thoughtful as he gazed skyward. “My mum would tell me to make a wish, just like everyone else did. But my dad—”

Qrow looked at Clover, who was still looking up, although the corners of his mouth had turned down.

The younger man sniffed slightly. “My dad said, if you crossed your fingers—it had to be both hands—then the wish would almost certainly come true.”

Qrow clambered to his feet, and laid a hand on Clover’s arm. “You’ve never spoken about your family before.”

“I don’t see them as much as I should. After my dad died…”

“Ah Clover, I’m sorry,” Qrow knew he wasn’t always that good at sympathy, but his heart hurt for Clover. To have had close family, and lose them— he could empathise with that. “What did you wish for?”

Clover glanced quickly at Qrow, before looking away into the darkening night. “Sounds stupid. Happiness, basically. Just— to be happy.”

Qrow raised a hand to Clover’s chin, turning his face towards him. Clover’s green eyes— _they really are beautiful,_ thought Qrow, as though he were seeing them for the first time—sparkled with unshed tears. “That’s not stupid. Happiness is what we all want, really.”

Clover smiled crookedly. “Yeah, I guess. What about you? Did you ever wish on a shooting star when you were a kid?”

* * *

Qrow chuckled – mirthlessly, ruthlessly – and said, his tone dismissive, “Maybe when I was really young. I figured out pretty early that for me wishing didn’t accomplish anything – hard work did.”

Clover reached over to squeeze his hand and Qrow was thankful for the grounding touch, feeling strangely vulnerable even as he tried his best to sound flippant. He should have know that Clover wouldn’t be fooled.

“Those are some weird double standards,” Clover said easily, looking at the sky. “If I get to wish for happiness, so do you. You deserve it just as much, and dreaming is no weakness.”

Qrow looked away from him, embarrassed and unable to form words, frustrated and simultaneously happy at how easily Clover could read him. There was no hiding from him, but Qrow was beginning to think it wasn’t a bad thing.

“Well –” he started, trying to bring the conversation back to a lighter topic, “– what would I wish for, then? I’m the best fighter there is, have a wonderful family and can use magic to turn into a bird.”

Clover snorted as he laughed, and Qrow relished the sound. “Ah yes, you’re quite magical indeed. But it wasn’t exactly your wish to become a shapeshifter, was it? What do _you_ want, Qrow?”

* * *

Qrow opened his mouth to reply, then closed it. It had been so long since he had actually thought about what it was that he wanted for himself. He knew he wanted Clover, but here Clover was--and yet. Clover was here, and he had Clover, he had a partner who understood him, and who made him laugh. But still, there was that familiar ache in his heart--the pain and loneliness that had long ago metastasized, that had driven him to solitude, to self-destructive spirals, and to push people away. He recognized that he had come so far--he had learned to open up to Clover, and to his nieces, and the rest of the gang. He had learned that he didn’t have to be alone just to keep his loved ones safe. But still, that pit in his heart had not gone away. 

Qrow was incandescently happy to have Clover in his life--but he knew that Clover could never fill that pit, could not erase that pain.

In his heart, Qrow knew that there was one thing he wished for--one desire that would overpower all others. A desire that he knew could never be satisfied.

Qrow sighed. “I can’t take this wish,” he told Clover.

“Oh come on,” Clover replied, putting his hands on his hips. “Qrow, you know you’re allowed to want things. You’re allowed to ask. Come on, what would you wish for?”

Qrow reached up and held Clover’s face, brushing his thumb gently along the soft fuzz growing at the edge of his cheek bone. He took a deep breath.

“I can’t have this wish, because if I let myself wish for something, there’s a wish in my heart that I know will come out. And I know I’m allowed to want that--to long for it--but if I do this, if I make that wish and it comes true--” Qrow broke off, looking away from Clover and tensing his jaw against the tears. “Making that wish is a line I can’t cross,” he said hoarsely.

* * *

Clover almost couldn’t take the vulnerability that oozed from Qrow right then. He knew just how hard they had worked together to help Qrow see his own self worth, to give him a more optimistic look on life, and to accept help when it was offered. 

Qrow had come such a long way since they first met; Going from a tired, slouched vagabond who blamed himself for everything that went wrong and frankly _expected_ everything to, to a relaxed and confident man who happily jumped into missions and dangerous situations because he wholeheartedly trusted the people he had alongside him.

It broke Clover’s heart to see that even with how far the older man had come, he still couldn’t be selfish. He still put others before himself more often than not. 

_He’d be damned if he allowed Qrow to accept something less than his greatest wish._

“Qrow Branwen.” he said softly, taking Qrows hands in his, “I’m not totally sure that I know what you’re talking about wishing for, but I know that whatever it is, you deserve it.”

“But I-”

“Please let me finish. In all of your life, you’ve done nothing but give and provide for your family and friends. Yes, you’ve started putting yourself above others in small ways like taking time for yourself if you’re tired or asking frivolous things of others, but you have yet to be selfish in larger ways.” 

Clover took a little risk and slipped his hands up Qrows arms to cradle his cheeks and lean closer. _“Whatever it is_ that you want right now? What you think will cross some invisible line that you yourself have drawn? Of all the people in this crazy world _you, Qrow Branwen,_ deserve to have it.”

Qrow, with tears in his eyes now threatening to break free and run down those pale cheeks, let out a small sob. _“Clover I- I can’t._ You don’t… you don’t _understand_ I- Look, what If I told you.... That what I want to wish for would mean _taking away someone’s freedom?”_

* * *

Clover’s brows furrowed in concern at his words. “Qrow, what are you talking about? You wouldn’t-” He cut himself off as he tried to think of what to say. Eventually he continued in a gentle tone. “Look, just tell me what your wish is, then maybe I’ll understand.”

Qrow shook his head, the tears now falling down his cheeks. “N-No, it's better if you don’t!” He told the other man in broken sobs as he desperately clung to him. Clover’s heart broke at the sight, all he wanted to do was hold Qrow and tell him everything would be okay but he knew that wouldn’t fix anything.

“Please…” He spoke so quietly as he oh so softly brushed the tears away. 

“No, I-I can’t-” 

_“Qrow.”_

He stopped and stared wide-eyed at Clover. He’d never heard his name said in such a way before. As if he actually mattered, as if Clover actually cared about him and what he wanted, as if Clover couldn’t bear the thought of him being sad and lonely.

Those thoughts didn’t stop the tears but they lessened.

“Clover I…” Qrow paused as he took in a shuddering breath and brought his hands up to his own face to place them on Clover’s. “I want to be together with you, I want to stay by your side even after this is all over, I want… you.” 

“Qrow-” Clover began as he looked at him in awe but Qrow cut him off.

* * *

“But I understand if you don’t want to-”

Clover takes Qrow’s hand into his, “Stop for a moment and listen to me, give me 30 seconds on silence.”

Clover takes a deep breath, “Qrow, I want to be together with you as well, stay by your side. I wouldn’t trade what we have for anything. So no need to cry Qrow, I want to be with you just as you want to be with me.”

Clover starts to rub small circles onto the back of Qrow’s hand, “I don’t want you to be lonely anymore Qrow, you don’t have to be lonely anymore, I’ll be here with you, tomorrow and forever if you’ll have me. I won’t go anywhere.”

Qrow stares up and Clover once more, with wide eyes, and word, any deflect dies in his throat as he stares at the man in front of him. The one who just seemingly pledged his life to him after all of this was over, the one who was so kind and caring, and her genuinely wanted this.

Qrow opens his mouth then closes it again, still not know what to say back to him.

* * *

Clover's eyes flick down to Qrow's lips for a split second. Suddenly, Qrow makes up his mind. If he couldn't find the words to express himself, he'll let his actions speak for him.

He reaches up and brushes his fingers across Clover's cheek, cupping his jaw. Clover's eyes widen and his breath hitches. They stare at each other for a moment, a tenuous pause. Then Clover smiles, gaze softening, and leans forward. Qrow closes the distance and brings their lips together.

Qrow kisses Clover and wills every ounce of his emotions into it. Clover's hands settle on his hips. He thinks of Clover's pledge to him, and pulls the man even closer, deepening the kiss. The shudder he feels run through Clover's body makes Qrow smile against his lips. 

They break apart eventually, but Qrow holds Clover close to him. He takes a moment to just feel Clover's breath against his lips before he opens his eyes. 

Clover is gazing at him, a soft smile on his face. "Glad you made that wish?"

* * *

“More than glad,” Qrow smiled, pressing their foreheads together, “I’ll have to make it again when the next shooting star comes along.”

A knowing smirk crossing his face, Clover winked and flicked his lucky pin. Just like that, another bright streak of light trailed across the night sky, appearing and disappearing in a split second.

“Lucky me,” he teased.

Qrow chuckled, pulling the other man in for another kiss.


End file.
